Staff writersUpdated June 17, 2026 — 10:23am,first published June 17, 2026 — 5:18amThe Australian sharemarket lacked direction in early trade, tracking a patchy day on Wall Street where investors rotated out of technology shares and positioned for the first Federal Reserve interest rate decision under new Chairman Kevin Warsh.The S&P/ASX 200 edged up 6.3 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 8924 as of 10.19am AEST, having dropped at the open. The bourse trod water on Tuesday as investors paused to assess the durability of the relief rally fuelled by the US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and parsed the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold. The Australian dollar was trading at US70.68¢.Oil prices fell below $US80 for the first time since March.APOn Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 slipped 0.6 per cent and pulled 1.3 per cent below its record set earlier this month. The market was nearly evenly split between stocks rising and falling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6 per cent to set a record for the second straight day. But drops for some influential tech stocks pulled the Nasdaq composite down 1.2 per cent.Stocks that had benefited from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market in particular following vicious swings over the last couple of weeks.They’ve been leading the market up and down amid worries that their stock prices shot too high in the mania around AI. That’s taken a toll because chip companies, makers of computer memory and other AI winners have grown so massive that they’ve become some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.Drops of 2.4 per cent for Nvidia, 4.4 per cent for Broadcom and 6.2 per cent for Micron Technology were the heaviest weights pulling the S&P 500 lower.Dave & Buster’s Entertainment sank 6.2 per cent after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while Robinhood Markets fell 1.4 per cent after the investing platform said that it’s laying off about 10 per cent of its full-time employees.On the winning side of Wall Street was SpaceX, which rose 4.8 per cent for its third straight gain since its debut on the US stock market. The mega-cap, which is now bigger than Jeff Bezos’s Amazon, said it’s moving forward with a purchase of Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, valuing it at $US60 billion ($84.9 billion).Yum Brands climbed 1.9 per cent after it said it’s selling the Pizza Hut chain for $US2.7 billion. Most of the restaurants will go to LongRange Capital, a private equity firm. Those in mainland China will go to Yum China Holdings.The strongest action was in the oil market, where optimism continued that a tentative US-Iran deal on their war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the week and get the global flow of oil going again. West Texas Intermediate traded below $US77 a barrel, after sinking 16 per cent over four sessions to post the longest losing run this year. Brent ended near $US79. The interim pact, which is due to be signed on Friday, offers Tehran broad financial incentives, including the right to sell its oil immediately.Significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, including what to do with Iran’s nuclear program. But the hope on Wall Street is that this agreement will mean a long-term fix to a conflict that has worsened inflation around the world. The price of Brent has come down sharply from its $US100-plus level of a few weeks ago, though it could still take months for the energy industry to get back to full speed.In other international markets, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 briefly topped 70,000 for the first time before ending with a modest gain of 0.1 per cent after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 1 per cent. That’s its highest level in three decades, and it followed a similar move by the European Central Bank last week.The Federal Reserve began its own meeting on what to do with interest rates on Tuesday, with an announcement on the decision scheduled for Wednesday [early Thursday morning AEST].It’s the first meeting under the Fed’s new chair, Kevin Warsh, who was nominated by President Donald Trump. Trump has been pushing for lower interest rates, which would give the economy a boost but also threaten to worsen inflation. The widespread expectation, though, is that the Fed will leave its main interest rate alone again.In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.43 per cent from 4.47 per cent late Monday and from 4.56 per cent earlier this month.High yields in bond markets worldwide caused by expensive oil prices have threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for all kinds of investments, including stocks and cryptocurrencies.High yields have already sent mortgage rates higher, and a report on Tuesday said construction crews broke ground on far fewer new US homes in May than economists expected.with AP, BloombergThe Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners